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Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Another gorgeous polish from the reader donated box. Thank you! I love this one - it's got a duochrome red/copper quality to it and it's so firey and glowy. This ended up being four coats for reasons explained below, but three was fine, and it dries quickly so it's much less of a hassle than that sounds.

What I do not love is seche vite. Oy vey. I poured two bottles together so I could actually use the dregs, and it applied OK, but it shrunk so badly! It's pulled in 2-3mm on the sides and taken the polish with it. So I apologise that this mani isn't as pretty as it should be :(

Does anyone have any suggestions for top coats that don't shrink so much? I've really had it with SV ruining manicures...

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comments:

It's reassuring to read I'm not the only one that has trouble with Seche Vite. It shrinks so bad on me and the day after, my polish just peels off.Have you tried Essie Good to Go? I heard lots of good things about it.

Do you use Seche Restore? I've always kept a big bottle of Restore on hand for when my SV gets a little thick (or any polish, really) and I've never had the kind of shrinkage issues people seem to complain about with SV. If it's a difficult polish to work with and I have to use thicker coats, or if it's too dry by the time I put the topcoat on, I'll sometimes get *maybe* 1/2 mm of shrinkage at the tips, but nothing like 2-3 mm.

The only other top coat I've used consistently was Essie Good to Go, and I wasn't impressed.

I just added a whole bunch of polish thinner to one of my half empty bottles of seche vite and it's so much better now. I was having major issues with it shrinking and peeling and the thinner seems to have fixed all that for now. I found some cheaper thinner at Sally Beauty ($3.50 for 4 ounces! It will last me forever.)

Polish thinner, for sure. Even with thinner, I used to get some pulling with SV (but my tips are also too short to really "wrap"). My favourite now is Essie Good To Go, have had good luck with it. I've taken to applying a layer of Barielle Manicure Extender over wet polish first, then finishing with Good To Go. Seems to make it more durable, or something. Good luck!

I'll also put my two pence in to say that Seche Vite works great for me, but as soon as my bottle gets half full I add a pippette of Seche Restore and then fill up from my big bottle of SV as well, so it is always 'as new'. It is horrible when it gets too thick. I also wrap my tips with coloured polish and SV, and try not to leave a gap at the sides or cuticles, so don't notice shrinkage. However, I have tried some other topcoats that other people swear by and disliked them, so I fully understand that not everyone will get on with SV! However, I don't use SV with Orly, Zoya or some OPIs as it often doesn't seem to dry properly with them, so I use Nubar Diamant or CG Fast Forward (ultra stinky to my nose) or Color Club 0-60 with them...

I use Poshe Superfast Drying Top Coat. No smell from the Toluene (which I'm highly allergic to anyway), no shrinkage, no chipping and high glossy shine that lasts sometimes a week on me. Oh, and it's a whole dollar cheaper than that icky Seche Vite stuff.

A vote for CG Fast Forward. I've tried several top coats and FF dries quickly for me, shows no shrinkage if you wrap, and doesn't have issues with any polish brand I've tried it over. It even works on the old CND's I love, which are often incredibly slow to dry on me.